Latgale Offensive

The Latgale Offensive (20 June-4 July 1944) was an offensive operation carried out by the Soviet Red Army against the German Wehrmacht in the Latgale region of eastern Latvia, one of the major offensives into the Baltics during the Operation Bagration offensives. The 2nd Baltic Front under Andrei Yeremenko, having also completed the Pskov Offensive against the last German forces in that region, pushed into Latgale and destroyed several German formations and drove the German 16th Army into Lithuania. The offensive came to an end on 4 July 1944, when the Latgale region was liberated. The Soviets would proceed to launch offensives towards Riga and Memel on the Baltic coast, although these would have to wait until the end of the year.

Background
In June 1944, the Stavka high command of the Soviet Red Army decided to launch a series of massive offensives against the Axis Powers ranging from Karelia in Finland to the north to Romania in the Balkans in the south. The offensives were carried out by twelve Soviet fronts, and the Leningrad Front, 3rd Baltic Front, and 2nd Baltic Front were focused on liberating the Baltics from Axis occupation. A three-pronged offensive was planned: the Leningrad Front would launch an offensive to break through from Narva to Tallinn; the 3rd Baltic Front would attack to the south of Lake Peipus from Pskov and advance north into Estonia and south towards the Latvian city of Riga; and the 2nd Baltic Front would launch an offensive towards Opochka and Dvinsk in eastern Latvia. The 2nd Baltic Front's offensive would push through the Latgale region and destroy Army Group North as the two fronts to the north linked up in Estonia. The 2nd Baltic Front, led by Andrei Yeremenko, faced the debilitated Army Group North, commanded by Georg Lindemann.

Offensive
The offensive was opened on 20 June 1944 when the 2nd Baltic Front assaulted German positions at Dagda in eastern Latvia, and the Soviets succeeded in capturing Dagda after a two-day battle against the Wehrmacht troops defending the town. The Soviets proceeded to launch further assaults into Latvia by attacking Daugavpils with 45,000 troops, facing the 29,421-strong German 16th Army, which had been battered by recent offensives. The 16th Army was forced to retreat into Lithuania as a result of the heavy losses incurred upon the Wehrmacht by the Soviets, abandoning Latvia as the Soviets assaulted the country. On 4 July 1944, the Soviets took Rezekne, the final piece in the puzzle for the conquest of Latgale. By that point, the German forces in Pskov Oblast had been pushed back, and the Soviet forces linked up for the offensive into the Baltics.